Android phonemaker Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) is scary successful. Its rivals have tried -- and failed -- to use lawsuits to slow its sales. It's so wildly successful that even partner Google Inc. (GOOG) is reportedly getting a little nervous.

The South Korean firm has risen quickly through the ranks, passing Nokia Oyj. (OMX:NOK1V) in smartphone and featurephone unit sales, and creeping closer to Apple, Inc. (AAPL) in profitability. Tonight in New York City, just blocks from one of Apple's busiest stores at the Radio City Music Hall, Samsung unleashed its latest flagship model in its best-selling.

With the Galaxy S IV's U.S. launch, its first American launch event for its flagship phone series, Samsung takes another step in its push to shift its marketing, engineering, and management towards the U.S., the world's most lucrative electronics market.

Here's a breakdown of the phone's specs, versus the phone's chief competitor, the iPhone 5:

(The only items not revealed at the launch event were the price and GPU of the Samsung device.)

Clearly the Galaxy S IV has a much more powerful set of hardware, while being only narrowly heavier/and larger. The 1080p screen is the real star of the show, although the inclusion of 802.11ac, the higher resolution camera, microSD, and a removable battery are other niceties.

When comparing the GSIV and its chief competitor, the iPhone 5, the only remaining questions are battery life (given the more powerful CPU) and buyer preference with regard to screen size (while the iPhone screen is lower resolution, some buyers do prefer smaller screens). Clearly some will prefer the slick metal/glass body of the iPhone 5 to the plastic-type case of the GSIV, as well.

II. What's New

Samsung's Head of Mobile Communications, J.K. Shin calls the Galaxy S IV a true "life companion" bragging, "Innovation improves the way people live every day. For each of us, life is a journey. What you want is a device that can help us on the journey. Ladies and gentlemen, the Samsung Galaxy S4."

The S Health is particularly cool -- it uses the built in accelerometer to track steps taken/calories burned when you're carrying the device, plus features options to track your meals and sleep. S Translator should be handy too; it supports Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Spanish, and English. The app even can attempt to translate text on signs/printouts using the cameras. The app has mild offline support, with canned phrases.

Samsung Air Health [Image Source: AnandTech]

Home Sync allows you to tap your phone with compatible Samsung NFC devices, like televisions, to pair it. You can then transfer photos wirelessly. The images are uploaded to a 1 TB cloud storage account, which is free for GSIV buyers.

Knox is essentially identical to BlackBerry Ltd.'s (TSE:BB) recently announced multi-mode feature in BB10. The phone can be placed into either a work or a home mode.

TouchWiz on the Galaxy S IV has been glistened up, with a translucent menu bar and other graphical perks.

One are of the UI/firmware that Samsung spent a lot of time on is the camera UI. There's new editing features, and an ability to select still shots from a burst of frames (100 in 4 sec.) -- similar to rival HTC Corp.'s (TPE:2498) much-advertised technology. There's a new "dual camera", which allows you to simultaneously use both cameras on the device for photos or video; there's composite merging of photos; and there's a new AirView touch-friendly gallery app.

There's also been big improvements on the control side. While Apple and other rivals are still largely confined to static touch on the screen, the GSIV introduces air gestures, via the infrared and proximity sensor. If your hands are dirty or full, you can do a rough gesture over the screen surface to get the phone to perform basic actions.

Air Pause/Scroll [Image Source: The Verge]

The 2 MP front camera also tracks your eyes for both scrolling purposes ("Air Scrolling") and to pause video if you look away ("Air Pause").

As with its tap-to-share technology Samsung has clear differentiating technologies that its competitors lack.

For Google, the Galaxy S IV is more good news. For Apple it's a major concern. The soonest Apple will respond is mid-to-late 2013 (with what is being called the iPhone 5S). That gives Samsung potentially 5 or 6 months of uncontested market dominance.

Barring unforeseen events (product bans) expect this launch to help sustain both the upward pressure on Google's stock and the downward pressure on Apple's stock.

None of it matters if you lack the proper software.Where is Infinity Blade 2 on Android? Where is the Walking Dead, or any new noteworthy game that's not Angry Birds?Sales figures show it as well, when you have a shitty ecosystem, not many people spend money on it.

LOL... Yes. Anything that you cant do doesn't matter... I guess thinking clearly is ruled out as well. You name a couple of lame games and you think that makes a platform? ugh... Any and all smartphones and tablets suck for gaming, Apple included... but even including gaming, there isnt anything you can do on an IOS device that you cant do on an Android. there are a TON of things you can do on Android that you cannot with IOS. That is just a fact.

If you like a small screen phone with low res that is missing all that functionality, then the iPhone is good for you . You should keep it. It's certainly fast and for gaming (which as I mentioned sucks on all touchscreen devices) its as good as it gets for that. If that suits you fine, but the iPhone isn't good enough for me. If you like an inferior product that is fine, buy it, but don't crap on superior products because you don't need one. You just come off looking petty and ill informed.

Oh wow iPhone has Infinity Blade 2? Well stop the presses, I'm going to run out right now and buy a phone because of some goddamned game!!

Are you idiots hearing yourselves?

quote: Sales figures show it as well, when you have a shitty ecosystem, not many people spend money on it.

Because Android has WAY more value added than iOS. You don't need to spend money on a phone if it comes out of the box with everything you need. Add a few free apps for the things you want, and what's left?

I don't even have an iPhone right now. I have a Lumia 920 and an iPad, and I was on Android until recently. The difference in quality is there, even the same app on both platforms is usually better on iOS.

Games are an obvious difference but its just the tip of the iceberg. iOS having better apps makes sense since it is more profitable and easier to develop.

"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer